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These are the three pillars on which Ed Notes is founded – providing information on current ed issues, organizing activities around fighting for public education in NYC and beyond and exposing the motives behind the education deformers. We are part of a tiny band of resisters. Nothing will change unless YOU GET INVOLVED IN THE STRUGGLE!

Friday, November 19, 2010

Ed Notes Exclusive: First Cathie Black Interview - How She Will Save the NYC School System From the Mismanagement of Joel Klein

Black proposes turning ARIS data into a giant betting parlor

The call came in the middle of the night.

"Norm? Cathie here. Cathie Black. I saw the video of that loser Joel clinging desperately to you, hoping a share of your popularity would rub off on him. Things are not going so well on this end and I want some of that magic too so I decided Ed Notes would be the best forum for my first interview."

"Wow, thanks Cathie. I'm up for a hug anytime you want. Should I come over now?"

"This is not about that, you idiot. Don't you know I am a leading feminist and a pal of Gloria Steinem and she would cut your....never mind."

"We missed you at the Gotham Schools party the other night. Everyone was hoping you would come."

"Never heard of Gotham whatchamacallit. Let's get down to business. I want to share with you my plan for solving the fiscal crisis facing the NY schools by raising a billion extra dollars every year."

I was impressed with her no nonsense approach. I had heard about her fiscal skills and was about to ask her to come over and fix my personal budget. But she went on without giving me a chance to get a word in.

"Look," she said. "We are faced with a major crisis, right?"

"Yes," I said.

"Don't interrupt me, you fool. The Lord Mayor announced 6000 cuts in teachers. Between you and me he's a wus. I'm going to cut double that amount. Then I'm going to trash that entire bunch of clowns who have been criticizing me by raising enormous amounts of money earmarked for the school system."

"How can you do that in the midst of this crisis," I asked, with some trepidation?

"Credit default swaps," she smirked, "and derivatives."

"Huh?"

"It's quite simple. We have all this data out there. We know it is all a scam to get rid of high salaried teachers, lower the pay of those left, close schools and replace them with charters and dump kids who can't come up with high enough numbers. And we know this data has nothing to do with the kids or education at all but to force our elite ideology down the throats of the commoners. The scam that it's about children first had been working until that schmuck Joel screwed up the test data this summer. I'm sorry Mike dumped him before the high school grad rate scandals hit so I could take it over real clean, but we'll filter out information on how it was all slimy Joel's fault."

She went on. "Maintaining these data systems like ARIS is expensive."

"You're going to get rid of ARIS," I said? "They will carry you in the streets."

"No, stupid. I need lots of money to expand ARIS a thousandfold by installing it in every child's home. All a parent or child has to do to get us to call the cops on a teacher whose value-added score drops is to press the big red button on the console."

"But how will they know..."

"A teacher's index score will not only be based on a test once a year but include every piece of data about a teacher, including my special interest, what they wear each day to school. Students will rate their dress each day and we will get instant feedback. I'm especially concerned that they don't wear the same pair of shoes two days in a row, which in my book is grounds for instant dismissal, tenure be damned. Imagine we can't fire people for such basic violations of common core standards of dress."

I tried to say something but the phone cord was strangling me. This Cathie woman has Superman power.

She continued, "So why not make better use of the data? I am proposing a system that will allow institutions and individuals to place bets on the chances of schools staying open or closing. We will also have an over-under on school closings and you will be able to use hedge funds to cover yourself both ways. We can even take bets on which schools charters will choose to co-locate in and on the timetable for the local public school to be entirely wiped out. How about placing a bet on the exact percentage number we will trump up to declare a school underutilized?"

"You ARE brilliant. Now I see why you got the job. But doesn't that allow the trumper uppers a leeway to bet on their own numbers?" I said.

"Stupid face, that's how we are paying them - they can make a lot of money, none of it on our heads, by placing bets on the very schools they are closing. Just the way they do it in the stock market. That's why I am such a legendary manager."

I was impressed already but wowed as she went on.

"The real money will be betting on the predicted results on each individual teacher's value-added score - think, you can bet on whether a teacher will go up or down or stay the same, with follow-up bets on how long it takes for the low scoring teachers to be disappeared from the system. That's 70,000 - er - 50,000 teachers to bet on."

"Didn't you say you were only going to double Bloomberg's 6000 cuts? Tha's only 12 not 20 thousand."

"Hah, dickface, that's only for public consumption through press dummies like you."

I could see the money rolling in already. "How will you raise test scores?"

"Easy. Teachers will get their choice of a Burberry coat if they come in with a high VA score."

"With all that money, I expect you will be using it to reduce some class sizes," I ventured.

"Why is there a problem with class size? My kids never had a problem and I don't see why that issue should even come up. Besides, didn't you read Bill Gates' orders for us not to reduce class size?"

"Well I am certainly impressed," I said. I gingerly asked, "People are saying that you were being kicked upstairs at Hearst and that this position is a fallback..."

"How do you think Joel got the job," she hissed. "They had already dumped him at Bertelsman when Mike bailed him out. That's why people like Mike and I hang out together and are so tight, especially when we are all in St. Barts. But it was always clear that Joel did not belong in this crowd. I knew something was wrong but had to read on your blog that he was born in the projects and was the son of a postal worker. Union worker, I bet. Ick! By the way, what did Joel whisper in your ear when he hugged you?"

I hesitated. Joel had sworn me to secrecy. But I couldn't hold back. "He said that he left so many poison pills buried in the system that the bitch would go down in flames. And he couldn't wait to see the reaction to you going to black neighborhood churches every Sunday like he did."

"You've got to be joking," Black said. "Another schmuck move by Joel, actually thinking he had to try to win some people over to his 'this is the civil rights issue of our time' bullshit. Mike told me none of that crap for me. I never have to see one parent or deal with anyone if I don't want. He is covering all bases by buying up all the media, except that pesky NY Times that has been on my case.

"But I'm not worried. Mike's money will take care of them, my little lovely. And their little dog too. Oh, and if you ever try to hug me, you'll get a spiked heel up your ass."

Well done. Can't someone conjure up a Chancellor's Entrance Exam for her, based upon her previous comments and experience give HER a score? Has there been a formal posting of job criteria anywhere in the past? Some statistical data would be interesting. And, has she ever made a home visit? That should be her first job priority - spend a day with a school social worker and visit some of our troubled kids in their homes and get educated. She should be made to enroll in a Masters degree program as well, and get her education credits up to par. Spending time practice teaching in a junior hight school might provide some enlightenment. Hey, it can be a new learning experience for her. She LOVES a challenge!

“But Bloomberg sent the panel a warning, saying that if they didn’t appoint Black they will literally not be able to find anyone else to do the job. Anywhere. Forever. He asked, “How would you get somebody else? I don’t know what you’d do if you didn’t [get the waiver]…I don’t know why anybody would come if you didn’t do this.” Yes, why would any educator apply now that they know Bloomberg is looking for business moguls?”

Comments are welcome. Irrelevant and abusive comments will be deleted, as will all commercial links. Comment moderation is on, so if your comment does not appear it is because I have not been at my computer (I do not do cell phone moderating).

UFT Election Vote Comparison: 2004-10

A Personal Historical Perspective

Why Karen Lewis Reads Ed Notes

"A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

What media call "philanthropy" for the public schools are actually seed monies to establish a private "market" in publicly-financed education - an enterprise worth trillions if successfully penetrated by corporate America. Cory Booker, one of the "New Black Leaders" financed by the filthy rich, is key to creating a "nationwide corporate-managed schools network paid for by public funds but run by private managers.

"Ed Reformers" want to cash in on public education and to control its content and outcome, not improve it. Provide great education? Baby boomers had as close as this country has ever gotten to it when we were growing up. The Ed Reform Movement has no interest in seeing such a well-educated, democratically astute population ever again.

History of the UFT Pre-Weingarten Years

This award-winning series of articles by Jack Schierenbeck originally appeared in the New York Teacher in 1996 and 1997.

Naturally, from a certain point of view. But, despite certain biases, Schierenbeck, a great guy, was one of the best NY Teacher reporters so this is worth reading. Jack suffered a debilitating stroke many years ago (I used to get secret donations to ed notes from him through a 3rd source.)

“The schism in the union over radical politics [is] a major reason for stalling the growth of a teacher union for decades.” Revolutionary politics and ideology take center stage, as the original Teachers Union becomes a battlefield, pitting leftist against leftist and splitting the union.

Clarence Taylor's "Reds at the Blackboard" focused on the old Teachers Union which disbanded in 1964 after suffering from anti-left attacks.

Effective Union Organizing

A video series put together by Jason Mann from the British Columbia Federation of Teachers about social media and how to use it for effective union organizing.

The first series was called New Media For Union Activists Roadmap and it's still available on-line at:http://www.newmediabootcamp.ca/welcome/I watched some of them and need to rewatch as they are loaded with information.

The second series started last week and it's called "Online Campaigning for Union Activists"

7 weeks Old - Nov. 2011

You Don't Have A Choice - Join the Revolt

Hedges says, There are no excuses left. Either you join the revolt taking place on Wall Street and in the financial districts of other cities across the country or you stand on the wrong side of history.

Premiere "Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman"

Class Bias, Class Size and Online Learning

Good Article on Value-Added

Interesting commentary on Bloomberg Model

"The Bloomberg model has positioned parents as customers, and principals as CEOs, with student outcomes as the product. But the backlash that the mayor has faced is from parents who don't see their schools that way. Test scores aren't always what parents care most about in a school. Many care just as much about having teachers they can connect with, places they and their children feel comfortable and respected, a school's history in the community—things that aren't quantifiable o a standardized exam."

Ex-Harlem Success Teacher Comments on Eva the Diva

I am a former Harlem Success teacher. Not many people who work/worked for her like her very much. I once made the comment that she is very nice when I first was hired. Two of her closest colleague responded immediately almost in unison, "Eve is not nice!" Over time I realized that there was a lot of political games going on. Another colleague once said to me that he was tired of "being part of a political campaign." Sending out 15,000 applications for only 400 seats in a school is reprehensible. The money that paid for those mass mailings could have paid the yearly salary of another teacher not to mention the heartache of all those parents who applied but did not get a spot. She does good work trying to give disadvantaged students a quality public school education but at a great cost to staff AND the school's educational budget! school budget.

GEM's Julie Cavanagh Debates E4E member on NY1 on LIFO and Seniority

Davis Guggenheim Compared to Riefenstahl

“Waiting for Superman" is the second most intellectually dishonest piece of documentary work I have seen. It is surpassed only by Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," the pro-Hitler propaganda classic, in that regard. Uses personal narratives of adorable children to create narrative suspense that overrides public policy discussion with pure emotion in unscrupulous attack on teachers and their unions, among others

Timothy TysonProfessor of African American Studies and HistoryDuke University

A Familiar Voice on Unions

"We must close union offices, confiscate their money and put their leaders in prison. We must reduce workers salaries and take away their right to strike"- Adolf Hitler, May 2, 1933

Leonie Haimson on MSNBC

How Teaching Experience Makes a Difference

Even as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee and others around the nation are arguing for experienced teachers to be laid off regardless of seniority, every single study shows teaching experience matters. In fact, the only two observable factors that have been found consistently to lead to higher student achievement are class size and teacher experience, so that it’s ironic that these same individuals are trying to undermine both.- Leonie Haimson on Parents Across America web site

Outsource our children

Harlem $ucce$$ Academy Ad

Weingarten Sellout Tour Continues

With the myriad of anti-teacher crap pervading the headlines, AFT President Randi Weingarten thinks it's a good time to discuss faster ways to fire us.

Weingarten/Gates Foundation announce drone-driven teacher evaluation

According to a press release issued by the Gates Foundation, the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, these three have entered a ground-breaking partnership to evaluate teachers utilizing the drone technology that has revolutionized warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. A bird-size device floats up to 400 feet above a classroom and instantly beams live video of teachers in action to agents at desks at Teacher Quality Inspection Stations established by the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

When asked if the drones were authorized to drop bombs on teachers who exhibit inadequacy, Chester E. Finn, Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, replied, "Don't be ridiculous. Gates money puts other methods at our disposal."

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5-million-member American Federation of Teachers said the powerful union has signed on to the drone project...

Why did Waiting for Superman get snubbed and Exit Through the Gift Shop get nommed?

Davis Guggenheim’s doc about poor kids and charter schools got 11 major film award nominations and won four, including the National Board of Review and Sundance Audience Prize. Most pundits thought it a shoo-in. He won an Oscar for An Inconvenient Truth, and had major help from Bill Gates, Oprah and Obama. Some fear prankster Banksy’s Exit Through the Gift Shop is all a hoax.

Why it happened: Guggenheim’s big backers may have actually irked independent-minded Academy members. Worse, his teacher’s union-bashing film was embraced by conservatives, one of whom said his Oscar snub is “the price a political apostate pays in Hollywood for straying off the liberal plantation.” Education expert Diane Ravitch trashed it as inaccurate. A more dispassionate expert says, “The first response to the movie was that it’s about poor black kids, and it’s from the Gore guy, so it must be liberal and good-hearted. And then Ravitch and others portrayed it as basically right-wing propaganda, which unsettled the liberal members of the Academy. I don’t think the movie is as reactionary as Ravitch portrayed it, but I also don’t think it’s very good.” An Oscar doc voter agrees. “It was a great deal of hype. I felt like I’d seen the story before.” “It also tanked at the box office, relative to what was spent on promoting it,” adds the education expert. “The true unforgivable sin in Hollywood!”

Teacher Value-Added Data Dumping by Norm Scott

The Real Reason Behind Push for Standardized Tests: It's All About the Adults

On standardized testing in our schools

A must read article about the standardized test industry.Written by an insider who has worked as a test scorer, the article outlines a multinational industry based on an army of temporary workers paid by the piece at $0.30 to $0.70 per test, translated in the need to grade 40 tests per hour to make a $12 salary. The article goes on to show how the companies gauge the grading "results" based on the need to ensure new contracts to continue profiting off of our youth. The original article is from Monthly Review. Here it is on Schools Matter blog.

From Sharon Higgins

Parallels between America today and Germany in the 1920's and early 30's

"Resentment and obstruction are all the right wing in America have to peddle. Their policies are utterly discredited. Their ideology - even by its own standards - is a sham. They are so bereft of leaders, their de facto leader is a former drug addicted, thrice-divorced radio talk show host. That is literally the best they can muster. But they have built a national franchise inciting the downwardly mobile to blame the government, not the right, for their problems, exactly as Hitler did in the 1920s."

Norm on the radio at "The Mind of a Bronx Teacher"

I was asked to cover for a guest too chicken to appear by Bronx Teacher on his penetrating weekly internet radio show (every Tuesday night at 9pm).

"The union has consistently been giving back since 1968."

He asked some great questions and I had a chance to get into issues in terms of historical context of the UFT - the '68 strike, the '75 massive cuts to schools and other issues to help prove my point that Randi Weingarten DID NOT CHANGE DIRECTION but continued and amplified the policies set in motion by Al Shanker.

Chicago View of Unity/UFT on Charters

After many meetings and debates, the Chicago delegation succeeded in working with the New York United Federation of Teachers, Local 2 (UFT) to push the AFT to take stronger stands on charter school accountability and school closings — though many delegates from Chicago would have liked the language to have been even stronger.

Generally speaking, the New York delegation represented organizing charters as the best model for handling their role in reshaping unions, despite the fact that according to many reports few charter schools in New York have been organized as is the case in Chicago. This logic is the same touted by the Progressive Caucus of the AFT. The few that have been organized are a part of the UFT local though they have separate contracts negotiated with the help of UFT. The Chicago delegation reflection the mindset that allowing new charters to continue to proliferate while attempting to organize existing charters is an end game in which public schools and the union lose.

Ed Notes Greatest Hits: HSA Rally and Founding of GEM

Angel Gonzalez and I attended that rally and used the footage to promote our conference on Mar. 28, 2009, which is where the concept of a group like GEM emerged. Until then we had basically been a committee of ICE working with the NYCORE high stakes testing group. The actions of Eva and crew helped spawn GEM. Mommie Dearest!!

I have more video somewhere. I was hoping to get Leni Riefenstahl to edit it but she died. We would have called it "Triumph of the Hedge Fund Operators."

An Oldie But Goodie: The Disparity Gap

Charter Schools and Tracking

Thanks for getting this posting some of the air it deserves, Norm.I think ceolaf is right about a great number of things, and particularly appreciate his systemic, meta-view of these hot button issues.

I want to substantiate a few of the points raised in this post:

1. "Charterness" is not a condition for school innovation.

Just as the reverse is not true(a a charter school is by definition innovative), public schools that are NOT charters can be innovative.The original small schools movement of the late 80's and early 90's (now coopted and transformed by Gates/DoE)spawned a number of pedagogically innovative schools.In District One, educators, administrators and community members started a handful of still popular and sucessful small schools within schools to pull back the fleeing local residents into public schools.Those Dewey-based, child-centered schools offered curriculae based on whole language, constructivist math, mixed age groupings, integrated curriuculum projects and portfolio evaluation

2. Tracking on a large scale does indeed exist.Gifted and Talented and CTT programs are used as sorting hats that are increasing racial isolation in many schools and communities.I would like to be able to substantiate this trend in the latest round of admissions, but as usual, have no access to that data from DoE yet (believe me I try)!

3. Special Ed service availability is, as ceolaf suspects, one more way to segregate and track:The two (soon to be 3) charter schools serving the District One community offer NO CTT or self contained classes.The "other public" district schools operate with plenty of both (w/ the exception of a few elite schools- a citywide K-12th G and T , a "dual language" Manadarin pre-k through 8th grade program and an elite selective HS), yet the charters offer no more than SETTS services to students.Despite the rhetoric of least restrictive environments and innovative methods for servicing students with special needs that you may hear from the OCS patricians, parents with kids with IEPs that require more services or more restrictive environments know that they need not apply to these schools.

Video of Chicago's George Schmidt and CORE Shredding Arne Duncan and the Chicago Corporate Model

Great Post on Teacher Quality at the Morton School

I'm very tired of the myth that schools are bursting at the seams with apathetic, unskilled, surly, child-hating losers who can't get jobs doing anything else. I recently figured that, counting high school and college where one encounters many teachers in the course of a year, I had well over 100 teachers in my lifetime, and I can only say that one or two truly had no place being in a classroom.